Once again, a very vocal minority of extremists have managed to gum up a vital service in the islands. The Hawaii Superferry has suffered enormous financial strains because of delays in launching it's interisland services, which finally began in April of 2007. Due to a vocal minority of protestors that created legal hurdles to the Superferry's operation, the Superferry has once again had to cease operation.

The Superferry has been operating under a law that allowed the Superferry to operate while the EIS, or environmental impact statement, was being compiled. The EIS can take years to complete, and the State saw fit to allow the Superferry an exemption to operate whie the EIS was being completed. Unfortunately, the legal challenges have managed to stop the operation while the exemption is being challenged on constitutional grounds.

The legal challenges that have stopped the Superferry in it's wake are supeficially based on requirements for the EIS. The actual protests against the Superferry's operation stems from the protestor's belief that the ferry will bring increased population, traffic, congestion and so on to their less populated outer islands. It is interesting to note that the majority of these protestors are themselves transplants from the mainland, and they themselves have created the exact impact on the islands that they are purportedly trying to prevent.

In the interest of preventing increased tourism and a few more rental cars on the roads, the effect is a compounding of detrimental effects on their own economies. The protestations can be summarized as a compounding of ignorance.  They ignore the fact that the Hawaiian Islands are the only major archipelago in the world that is entirely dependent upon the aviation industry for passenger travel. They ignore the fact that the Superferry provides an alternative civil defense capability to provide emergency relief in the event of natural disasters, such as we experienced after the 6.7 earthquake in October 2006. The national guard found it more expedient and cost effective to transport their heavy equipment to the outer islands on the Superferry than on military ships. The Superferry has reduced transport costs for local businesses, and has created more opportunities for outer island businesses to expand to Oahu, and vice versa.

The Superferry has similar operations throughout the world. There has never been a negative environmental impact  by any of these similar operations. The Superferry did a stellar job of preparing for operating safely in Hawaiian waters, and have procedures in place that go well beyond the requirements of an EIS to maintain their safety record.